With a single wild population comprising only 75 individuals, all descendants of just seven wild founders of a captive breeding program, the Mexican gray wolf is one of America’s most imperiled animals.

Wolves have yet to regain a footing in the Northeast since disappearing as a result of the widespread extermination campaign that began when the colonial settlers arrived. Individual wolf sightings have been documented in the Northeast, but no breeding pairs are known to exist.

Gray wolf recovery in the Great Lakes region after near-extirpation has been notably successful. In the 1960s, only a remnant population of 300 to 1,000 wolves limited to northeastern Minnesota remained.

Prior to European settlement, the Southwest was home to the Mexican gray wolf, a subspecies that ranged from southern Arizona, New Mexico and southwestern Texas to the mountains of south-central Mexico.

The red wolf (currently recognized as a different species than the gray wolf) once ranged as far north as Pennsylvania and as far west as central Texas. Because of its wide distribution, the red wolf played an important role in a variety of ecosystems, from pocosin lowlands to forested mountains.